SEARCH Magazine

SEARCH: 5 Apps for Writers

5 Apps for Writers
by Dan Shaurette

Sometimes a writer needs help procrastinating… I mean gathering and organizing their research and story ideas. Here are my five go-to websites that are free and easy to use for all types of research.

1. Pinterest

No, seriously, Pinterest is more than just a place to pin your favorite cat photos. Looked at broadly, Pinterest provides the user with a way to collect and organize website bookmarks into groups. Thanks to “Pin It” applets for browsers, it is easy to pin any website and an associated image to a board. This makes it valuable for a writer as a reference bookmark keeper with thumbnail visual cues grouped together into whatever topic you need.

In addition to using it to keep reference links, I also keep boards with photos of actors I imagine could play one of my characters and boards with photos of locations, which helps me set a mood or get details right about a setting. When I have writer’s block, I find trolling other Pinterest boards can spark ideas….read more in the Fall issue of SEARCH Magazine.